Tea Staining a Veil

I know, I know! I wanted to wear a birdcage veil or nothing... But when the ladies at the bridal store put a cathedral length veil on just to see, I had a moment. A suck-up-your-tears-or-lose-it moment. So I decided to cut the daisy chain off my mom's veil and tea stain it from stark white to ivory, to match my alabaster dress.  So if it matches my dress, I will wear my mom's veil at the church then change into a birdcage veil for the reception; best of both worlds.

(side note: my future mother in law so nicely offered to buy my the bridal store veil, but I wanted to give my mom's a try first, because I am actually incredibly sentimental)

So here is how I did it:

• I filled the bathtub with hot-hot-hot! water and about 10 teabags. (helpful hint: I took the papery end off the tea bags so it didn't pill up the tub water)
• I filled the tub about 3 inches with water, and let the tea bags steep for a few minutes to get the water nice and dark.
• I used a wooded spoon to stir my piping hot tub tea.
• After the tea bags seemed to be done steeping I added the veil in the tub using the spoon to make sure all parts were submerged.
• I let the veil soak about 20 minutes**, and voila! mom's white veil became ivory.
• If it still isn't dark enough just do it again!
• Clean the tub right away, you want to stain the veil and not the tub!

**make sure to check the color of the veil every 5 minutes or so. Scrunch up a bunch to really see if the color has changes as it is hard to tell with a single layer of  tulle

Here is a pick of the veil being stained in the tub

I hope my mom's veil is long enough for my dress, but I will keep you all posted.